Forget Theaters, Now Mozilla and YouTube Bring You 3D Home Movies Online

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As if the downturn on theater ticket sales wasn’t enough bad news for proponents of upgrading movie theaters for 3D screenings, now comes the news that people can watch 3D movies at home… via YouTube.

Google has teamed with Mozilla and NVIDIA to support YouTube users’ ability to watch stereoscopic 3D videos, supported by a new HTML5-based playback mode for Firefox 4. YouTube has been offering stereoscopic 3D as an option since 2009, but the option was only available to the very few who had 3D-enabled computers.

The new partnership allows many, many more users the chance to imagine that things are buffering right in front of their face. 3D project manager at YouTube, Jonathan Huang, is understandably in favor of the partnership:

“We’re excited to introduce HTML5 and WebM support to the thousands of 3D videos available on YouTube. By embracing these open standards, NVIDIA 3D Vision users now have a great way of experiencing YouTube’s library of 3D content.”

The idea of 3D YouTube seems like a niche market now, but with the increased availability of 3D cameras in recent years – this is where NVIDIA comes in – it’s a vertical that’s likely to grow as more and more people decide to try their hand at becoming amateur James Camerons.

For those with the ability to view the videos, there’s a showcase available right here – For everyone else, all you’ll see is a duplicated image, and a growing desire to upgrade your system or go out and see Thor for a second time.